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It’s simple: be unfair and schools get better

Equality, like the unicorn, is a mythical beast. It is an entrancing idea, but it has no reality. Pursuing mythical beasts in the real world is bound to lead to terrible disillusion. The long, cruel, bloody pursuit of communism and socialism, in the relentless hunt for equality, brought unspeakable horrors. The determined pursuit of fairness has proved, tragically, to be both destructive and unfair.

Yet many people are still in full cry after the mythical beast, as in last week's uproar about lotteries for school places. Brighton and Hove's Labour council decided by one vote, after a long and nasty public dispute, to impose a lottery system for places at the city's secondary schools. This was part of a deliberate plan to stop well-off middle-class families monopolising the two best schools because they have been able to buy expensive houses in that catchment area.